Such is the bane/beauty of college football. The stakes are huge but there's no playoff or safety net. It's a razor's edge from September to November involving players who have dates on Sunday and tests on Monday.

LSU and Alabama, No.1 and No. 2 in Sunday's latest Bowl Championship Series standings, play in Tuscaloosa on Saturday. The winner owns the inside track to the title game with everyone else lining up at the No.2 ticket booth.

Wisconsin, buried now at BCS No. 20, is out of the national title race after consecutive last-minute defeats involving sophomores, juniors and replay officials.

Last week the Badgers lost to Michigan State on a scoring pass that deflected off a player's face mask.

This week, gut-wrenching defeat introduced itself at Ohio State with the winning pass coming with 43 seconds left on a 40-yard touchdown pass from a freshman quarterback, Braxton Miller, to freshman receiver Devin Smith.

Ohio State Coach Luke Fickell said that Miller, before trotting on the field for the final drive, "looked at me and winked."

Stanford remains on a title track in part because USC Coach Lane Kiffin asked a sophomore receiver to think like a 10-year professional.

With nine seconds left in regulation and USC needing five yards to get into better game-tying field goal range, Kiffin called a crossing pattern in which Robert Woods was required to make the catch and kill the play before the clock expired.

Woods, of course, should have downed himself and called time instead of racing desperately for the sidelines.

His inexperience put the game in the hands of historically shaky Pac 12 officials, who ruled time had expired, allowing Stanford to win a thriller in triple overtime.

It is at the coach's own peril that he puts the outcome onus on a young player.

Youth can be served in college football but, as we see week after week, it can also be served up.